RIP Wireless Microphone Systems?

It is so nice to know that our wonderful government is always concerned for us. They want us to enjoy better TV picture quality. By the time it's all said and done, we all will have new TVs or adapters out of necessity. (I wonder if there is a tax credit for that?) The last time I read the constitution, I must have overlooked the "Government shall mandate new technology and purchases" clause. Ironically, there isn't much programming formatted for these new TVs.

The government told the TV broadcasters that they must convert from analog to digital, offering both simultaneously short term. We saw how well digital works on the receiving end during a natural disaster. It doesn't! There are no HDTV, digital Sony Watchmans (yet). The government acknowledged the need for analog stations after Katrina. Analog frequencies will be reserved for just such an emergency.

Well, they couldn't let radio go untouched by government hands either. Your radio stinks. Well, not just in the content sense, but it NEEDS MORE channels (Come on fellas! Join me in the Tim Taylor grunt! OH! OH! OH! OH! OH! OH!) So, all struggling radio stations must go digital and provide alternate channels of hyper-niche programming. As if soccer moms needed more choices for background noise.

So, how does this effect the church? The FCC posted on it's site some time ago, that it would begin auctioning off the 700MHz band of frequencies. This actually starts in the high 600's and goes through most of the 700's. About 90MHz at the top end are being auctioned off to telecommunications companies. If you are interested in bidding, 2 Billion is the opening bid. About 30MHz at the bottom end have been set aside for public/civil service communications. What does this mean? If you have a wireless system that is operating in the mid 600's to 700's, by 2008 you will no longer be able to use it. This is a reality now for some major markets like NY, via a transmitter tower on the Empire State Building.

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